KYRGYZSTAN : President Looks Set to Win 2nd Term

Voters cast ballots in the Central Asian state’s first contested presidential poll, and incumbent Askar A. Akayev looked set to win a second term in reward for his stewardship of the nation’s tough post-independence transition. Voting in the capital, Bishkek, a confident Akayev promised more of the market reforms that are at last bearing fruit in the ex-Soviet outpost of 4.4 million people tucked away on China’s border. The former physics professor said he expected to win 60% of the vote, leaving his challengers--two top Soviet-era Communists--trailing in his wake. “The challengers are well known, but I think their chances are very low,” he said of former Communist Party leader Absamat Masaliyev and ex-parliament Chairman Medetkan Sherimkulov. First results are due today.